


The Way You Look At Him

by asexualjuliet



Category: To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Genre: Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Post-Canon, Queer Character, from the play at least, inspired by the three gideon glick interviews i read where he confirmed Dill was queer, we STAN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 09:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20580026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/pseuds/asexualjuliet
Summary: Scout sees the way Dill looks at Jem. Like he hung the moon. Dill looks at Jem with stars in his eyes, and maybe he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but Scout sees.Or, the one with a queer little kid in 1930s Alabama.





	The Way You Look At Him

**Author's Note:**

> Celia Keenan-Bolger as Scout: And I never saw him again  
Me: Well the medallion says that’s dumb so we’re not gonna do that. 
> 
> Inspired by the three articles I read today where Gideon Glick confirmed Dill was queer,,, we stan. 
> 
> (This work is mostly based on the Broadway production, but I don’t know if there’s a tag for it).

Scout sees the way Dill looks at Jem. Like he hung the moon. Dill looks at Jem with stars in his eyes, and maybe he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but Scout sees. 

She doesn’t know what it is in Dill’s face that makes it different from when he looks at her or Cal or Atticus or anyone else. His eyes seem even bluer than usual when he’s with Jem, and Scout doesn’t know how that’s possible, but she swears it’s true. 

When Scout’s ten and Dill’s eleven and Jem’s fourteen, Jem meets a girl. Her name is Mary Elizabeth and she’s pretty. She wears nice gingham dresses and acts like a lady. She calls Jem _ Jeremy _ and Scout _ Jean Louise. _Scout sees her kissing Jem one day by the Radley house. 

Dill doesn’t like Mary Elizabeth. “She’s too prissy,” he says, “and she’s not even that pretty.”

“You’ve never thought a girl was pretty,” Scout points out. 

“Nuh-uh!” He insists, sticking his tongue out like he’s five years old. 

“Name one girl who you think is pretty,” Scout tries. 

Dill smiles. “You.”

Scout looks at him for a second before saying “Oh, shut up!” and punching him on the arm. 

“Hey!” Dill protests, shoving her back. 

And then they’re fighting but not really until they give up and collapse in laughter on the grass. The sky is blue as Dill’s bright eyes, not a cloud to be seen. This is the peak of summer. 

Except... Jem’s not there.

They see him with Mary Elizabeth one night, when they’re racing each other down the street.

Scout’s winning like she always does, and when she reaches the concrete-filled knothole by the Radleys’ house, she looks behind her, ready to make fun of Dill for the truly mediocre speed he completes their races with. 

But he’s not moving. 

“Dill?” Scout says, jogging back to meet him. “C’mon, you gotta at least try.”

But Dill’s eyes stay trained on the darkness in front of him and so Scout squints and only just barely makes out Jem and Mary Elizabeth. They’re too close together and she’s kissing him. It looks like she’s eating his face. 

“Eww!” Scout giggles, but Dill still doesn’t say anything. 

“Dill?” she asks, and he turns to her with tears in his eyes. 

“Hey, hey, let’s go,” Scout says, “Let’s go home,” because she’s just now realized what that look in Dill’s eyes is when he looks at Jem. 

It’s love. 

And so she leads Dill back to the house, arm around his shoulder, and she sits him down on the old bench on the porch. His crying is gross, Scout’s not going to sugar-coat it. His face is blotchy and his eyes are puffy and he’s crying harder than Scout has ever seen him before. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Scout says as he wipes his arm over his face. 

Dill looks at her, bright blue eyes not so bright anymore and he opens his mouth and says the three words that she can tell have been haunting him for years. 

“I love him.”

Dill bursts into tears again and this is pretty far out of Scout’s element, so she just lets him cry into her shoulder. 

She’s heard of boys liking boys before but it wasn’t _ normal_, and she thinks she heard once that people got killed for it. 

She doesn’t want Dill to die. 

So she just says “I know,” and holds him tight.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> All mistakes are my own, so feel free to let me know!


End file.
